


Forever In Today

by fhsa_archivist



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Challenge Response, Drama, Episode Related, Future Fic, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-09-13
Updated: 2007-09-13
Packaged: 2019-02-05 18:14:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12799650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fhsa_archivist/pseuds/fhsa_archivist
Summary: Jack's been around a long time...but everything dies.Written for the ironman7 challengePrompt:  In the garden of simple, where all of us are nameless, you were never anything but beautiful to me...





	Forever In Today

**Author's Note:**

> Note from Haven, the archivist: This story was originally archived at [Fandom Haven Story Archive (FHSA)](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Fandom_Haven_Story_Archive), was scheduled to shut down at the end of 2016. To preserve the archive, I began working with the OTW to transfer the stories to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in November 2017. If you are this creator and the work hasn't transferred to your AO3 account, please contact me using the e-mail address on [Fandom Haven Story Archive collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/fhsa/profile).

  
Author's notes: Crossover with Doctor Who, spoilers for DW: Last Of The Timelord and TW: Captain Jack Harkness  


* * *

"I can't die."

 

Jack pulls away from him in the dark - 

 

"Everything dies - trees, the sun, the Universe, everything, even you."

 

He struggles to breathe, forgetting for a moment he no longer has any physical sort of lungs, just an old, phantom memory of what breathing feels like and the glass cage that holds him, permeating his leathery skin with oxygen.

 

"You never told me your name," Jack says with only a little admonishment in his tone.

 

"Johnnn Harrrper…"

 

' - that's who you were, once, for a moment - that's not your name."

 

"I wasss Captain Jack Harkness…."

 

Jack laughs. "Sometimes I believe you were - more than I ever was anyway."

 

"No - " he protests, mechanics forming the long sounds as his lips move tiredly.

 

"It's okay, it's nice. You lived a lot more than I ever would have. But why did you keep it?"

 

"Whaaat - "

 

"My name. It had to have been difficult, all those years, the same name, the same face, people questioning you - why'd you keep it?"

 

"It was the only thing I haddd left of you - " The words are slow…it's harder to think of the sounds. He's so tired.

 

"Who are you - "

 

"The Face of - "

 

" - that's what they call you now," Jack stops him, "not who you are."

 

Fingers touching his face, a face he hasn't worn for a million years, a face with porcelain skin and blue, blue eyes…

 

"Who are you - "

 

"The man who has loved you from the day we met until the beginning of time - and longer." 

 

His voice is stronger now, richer…alive, but the darkness is suffocating, he's drowning in the nothing of it.

 

"Where are you - " he calls out, suddenly scared - when was the last time he'd been scared…

 

"Right here," Jack's hand folds around his, warm and solid, the first real touch he's felt in years - thousands, millions - of years. He sighs, letting air he couldn't remember breathing escape from his lungs.

 

"Come home," Jack whispers.


End file.
